Low Volatility: How To Profit From a Quiet VIX

By trading CBOE Volatility Index options, investors can make money in a (fairly) calm market.

Before the 2008 financial crisis, only a small group of investors paid attention to the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, and those who did have it on their radar generally used it as a barometer of how much panic was in the markets.

During the past few years, however, the VIX has gone from obscure to ubiquitous, and now a broad range of investors routinely keep tabs on the VIX in real-time to evaluate market sentiment. For the most part, the VIX is regarded as a contrarian market-sentiment indicator. Investors have become...